The Curious Case of Hester Antonia Dracolas
by HesterAntoniaDracolas
Summary: A story about a girl who loses her memory and goes to hogwarts in fourth year. She has to find her memory, fight off lord voldermort and her evil father and allow herself to fall in love, all the while fighting off the beast from inside.
1. The Girl, the Boy and the Man

Hi everyone,

This is my first story on here, please review and be as critical as you like. This first chapter may not be obviously related to harry potter, but stick with it. Hope you enjoy!

Hester Antonia Dracolas

* * *

Chapter 1: The Girl, the Boy and the Man

It was a sunny day, sometime in August, the girl was not sure exactly when. Summer was definitely coming to an end though, as the mad rush for last minute buying of school supplies had begun and the streets were mile-long traffic jams that stretched from one end of the city centre to the other.

The girl was hovering in the entrance to an alleyway. She was wearing a long, black, hooded cloak that covered half her face and nearly reached the ground. Underneath the cloak she wore long black robes. The people who noticed her marvelled at the long clothes in the heat, then they noted her hidden face and hurried on. The sleeves were too long and half-hid her pale hands.

She was looking at an old-fashioned, gold pocket watch that was on a chain connected to a pocket hidden inside her robes. She sighed and snapped the watch shut, putting it away in the pocket. The man she was waiting for was late. She had though that he might not come, he would not enjoy being in this place. That was why she chose it. He wouldn't dare be violent in a place as packed as this, and it was close enough to real help to make her feel at ease. Yet she had expected him to come. He, at least, had wanted to meet. She remembered his letter in which he had practically begged her to meet him. He had said that it was important and that he wanted to give her something. His previous letters had been of a more threatening tone, generally demanding that she joined him in his evil doings. Normally she did not reply to his letters or even read them properly, but this was different.

The girl had not seen the man in three years, since she ran away at the age of ten. The girl fingered the dark scar that cut across her left eye lid. The eye underneath was not so much an eye as a magical glass sphere that worked none too well, it was her own spell and it was sort of an invention.

The girl made her decision and withdrew further into the dark alleyway. She turned back one last time to see if anything had happened. There was still no sign of him. She watched the cars and vans roar past. Suddenly, in the middle of the road on a raised platform put there for no discernable reason, a figure appeared. One moment he wasn't there and then, after a lorry passed in front, he was. He wore a cloak even longer than the girl's; the whole of his face was hidden. He, too, was wearing black robes, except people didn't seem to see him at all. It had to be him. No other person would look like that.

The girl strode out of the shadows and wove her way through the crowds. She crossed the rode and reached the platform.

"ill met by moonlight, Titania," the man said in a cold menacing voice.

"It's obvious it's me, mortus"

"I enjoy the old customs"

"Times are different now"

"That is as maybe, I shall still greet you in such a fashion"

"As you wish, but I shall not return the welcome"

The man looked distinctly ruffled; he had the air of someone who didn't enjoy being disobeyed.

"You have something you want to give me?" the girl probed impatiently.

"Yes" the man said irritably. Then, with a flourish of his cloak that was clearly meant to impress, he revealed what appeared to be a ball of blue glass. On closer inspection the ball could be seen to hold a swirling mass of colour.

"You're giving me that?"

"Of course, you have refused to join me many times and I have decided you would be more willing to accept my new offer once you truly understand the greatness of the power"

"I do not want to be in the possession of something that has claimed as many lives as that"

The man gave her an ugly look before revealing a staff. It was made of elder and had many odd symbols carved into its side. He offered it to the girl but she shook her head.

"I have stated my reasons already, many times, I do not approve of your ideas and I will not join you"

The man drew himself up to his full and considerable height and growled menacingly "you dare defy me again, have you not learnt your lesson?"

"I learnt to stay away from you"

* * *

The boy ran down the alley, he had to be quick; his mother would surely notice he was gone eventually, even with his twin creating havoc to distract her.

He grinned to himself, half the street would be in mass hysteria by now, he was almost disappointed he had one the thumb war and was therefore the twin to escape.

The plan was to enter a shop on the high street and buy something (preferably edible) using the odd money they had managed to steal off their father. It shouldn't be too hard. The main challenge was getting back unnoticed.

The boy came out into the bright sunlight on the street. He turned in a full circle taking in his surroundings. Then he turned his attention to the cars roaring past. He stepped closer to the end of the pavement. Then tow people caught his eye.

In their long cloaks and robes it was obvious that they were of his kind. Yet what they were doing here of all places was beyond him. One was quite short, shorter than him. The other was over six feet. A giant. They were arguing.

Suddenly the man turned to face him. The boy froze. His face was shaded by his hood yet his eyes glowed maliciously like burning coals. They were all different colours, fragmented. A sudden fear was awakened in the boy, his throaght tightened and he couldn't breathe properly.

Then suddenly, without any warning and definitely on their own accord, his feet began to move forward nearer and nearer to the road. He knew it was dark magic, he had control over the subject too, but he knew no spell to break this one.

The shorter figure suddenly turned to look at the boy. He could now see that she was a girl. Her face was frightened and uncertain.

"What are you doing?" she yelled.

"When you agree to do as I say, I shall stop" the man smiled, exposing his pointy white teeth.

* * *

The girl glanced at the man and then at the boy, her eyes darted back and forth between the two several times. What should she do? She knew what was meant by "agree" there was a certain force behind the word. Once she had "agreed" she wouldn't be able to turn back. The red-haired boy the man had entranced was a wizard, the girl could sense the magic, he had stepped off the pavement and was moving towards the middle of the road. A huge lorry was careering towards him. When he reached the middle of the road he stopped.

The girl had three options, agree to the man's demands and forever be a slave, leave the boy to his fate and forever bear the guilt or push him out the way. It was an instant decision. The girl sprinted out into the road and crashed into the boy. There was a moment where their eyes met and time seemed to slow down but then the boy flew backwards onto the pavement. The girl was stuck. She had broken the spell by replacing the victim. She had just enough time to turn her head before the lorry hit her. Her ribcage folded in and her skull fractured on impact. She was thrown back with such force that she landed 200 yards back on the pavement. A pool of blood spread out around her.

The man was by her side in an instant unseen by the general public. It had not gone to plan but it had worked out even better than expected. He laid the staff across her chest and crossed her limp arms over it. He then placed the strange blue sphere in her eye socket replacing the glass eye that had bounced out. He smiled at her, not a nice smile, and disappeared. When he had gone, the crowds rushed forward.

* * *

Meanwhile, the boy was running. For his life. All he could think was that he had to get away. He careered out onto the street he was aiming for and sped up beside his twin.

"Was I missed?" he panted

"No, she didn't twig, although, she's grounded us"

"Pity"

"No pain, no gain brother"

"Oh…yeah. I didn't get it"

"It was more fun creating havoc anyway"

"Yeah"

But the image of the man's eyes was burnt on his mind forever.


	2. A sense of wrong

Chapter two: a sense of wrong

The first sense the girl had was sound. She could hear a multitude of sounds that blended into one to create a horrible loud noise. Then came smell. A clinical chemical smell that was too strong and burnt her nostrils. Then touch, a rough sheet over her, the hard bed beneath her and a dull throbbing pain that seemed to be everywhere from her head to her toes.

Then, finally, she forced open her eyes. She squinted in the harsh light cast by the strong bulbs above her. Her left eye seemed to work a good deal better than her right and her vision was tinted blue.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position, pausing at regular intervals when a wave of nausea splashed over her.

She surveyed the room, it was mostly white, and the only furniture was the bed she was sitting on. A wooden staff was leant against the wall. The problem was that she couldn't remember how she got here or what she was doing before or even her name. Infact the girl could not remember anything about herself. She knew she was a wizard and all the magic she had learnt. She knew all the information she had known before, whenever that was, except for details concerning herself. Where had she been? Who did she know? Did she have any family? It was like she had been erased from history.

The girl swung her legs round to the side of the bed with some difficulty; her legs were stiff and sore. When she tried to stand up the first time her legs collapsed underneath her and it took her several minutes to haul herself up with the aid of the staff. She used the staff as a walking stick and hobbled over to the mirror that hung on the wall. She looked at herself. It was quite shocking. She had long, wavy, blonde hair that half hid her pale face. She had one brown eye and the other…. The other was not so much an eye as a bright blue sphere that was too large for her eye socket and stretched the skin around it. Something swirled around just under the surface. There was a black jagged scar that cut into that eye. Actually she had lots of scars, on her face and on her arms and legs. But they looked much fresher than the black one. And more natural.

The girl decided that she must have been in some sort of accident, which would explain what she was doing here. Now that she thought of it, it looked like a hospital room. I'm probably in st mungo's. She thought.

Just at that moment the door opened and a middle-aged witch in clinical white robes entered followed by a tall man with shining white hair down to his waist and a beard so long he could tuck it into his belt. He wore flamboyant long robes of purple with gold and silver stars and a matching hat. He was wearing tinted half moon glasses and was peering over them, with electric blue eyes, benevolently at her.

"Ah, excellent timing professor, it seems she's awake" the witch, who the girl had now realised to be a healer, said cheerfully, before leaving.

"Good morning," the man said.

"Good morning," the girl replied she was surprised at the sound of her voice; it had an underlying coldness to it.

"Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry"

So that's who he was. The girl knew about hogwarts. Although she didn't know if she'd ever been, if she had then this man would be able to tell her who she was. Albus was obviously waiting for him to tell him her name.

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember who I am. I remember nothing about myself"

"You don't remember what happened to you?"

"No"

"I believe, according to muggle witnesses, who of course do not truly understand all they saw, that you were hit by a lorry"

"Oh,"

"Except I believe that there is more to it than that. You are a witch, there is no doubt, yet there is no record of you and no one seems to know who you are. And of course, your eye, it is most unusual piece of magic. The healers have left it in for now as they're unsure as to whether it would be safe. And that staff, you were found with it, yet it too is extremely unusual magic. It is curious that you should remember nothing of yourself yet all you knew of the world around you. It feels too controlled"

"You think somebody else caused the memory loss" the girl prompted

"Yes"

"So, do you know anything about me?"

"Nothing much, although I believe your name to be Hester Antonia Dracolas"

"How do you know that?"

"It's inscribed on the pocket watch you were found with, here"

Albus handed Hester an old fashioned gold pocket watch. It had a delicate gold chain and spiralled engravings of vines and flowers. When opened it revealed a polished clock face with roman numerals and, on the underside of the lid, the words "Hester Antonia Dracolas" in flowing script.

Hester tucked it away inside her robe and felt as if she had done it many times before.

"So, what do you plan to do about it" she asked.

"I am uncertain of the action which would be best, for now I intend to keep a close eye on you. I am sure that whoever caused you to be in the middle of that road will be back. I think that it would be best for you to come to hogwarts"

"I guess that I haven't been before, otherwise there would be more information on me"

"you guess correctly, there is no record of anyone of your name ever coming to hogwarts and seeing as no one has come forward to claim you, you can't have been there under a different name as your parents or guardians would have come by now. Anyway, term has already started, a week in. once the healers proclaim you fit enough. I'll take you there; your supplies have already been bought. So, I believe that is all you need, so I shall be off."

"Just one more question"

"Yes?"

"How long has it been?"

Albus smiled correctly interpreting her question.

"About a month, you were in a bad way"  
Hester nodded and albus left. As he walked out of the hospital and prepared to apparate. He thought about the young girl who had seemed so undaunted by the scars lining her face and the gaps in her memory. The young girl who so closely resembled her father. For Albus Dumbledore knew exactly who Hester was and most, if not all, her history. He grimaced at the memory of his face as he calmly killed his enemies with the staff and the orb that the girl now owned. He knew what had happened to her and he did not like it one bit.

Because mortus Delrada was her father.

Because he was a followed of voldermort.

Because he was an exceptionally powerful dark wizard.

Because he killed without remorse.

Because his plans never came to any good.

And because mortus Delrada, was supposed to be dead.


	3. Some things are impossible to escape

Chapter 3: Some things are impossible to escape.

Fred weasley was in detention. So was his brother George. Admittedly, he did think that perhaps tipping a whole cauldron of laughing potion on the floor during potions was a bit much, but nobody had really minded spending the rest of potions giggling at the slightest thing even if it did lose them house points all afternoon for bursting out laughing during lessons. And snape's punishment was frankly outrageous. They had been cleaning cauldrons for the past two hours and snape had told them, rather gleefully, that they would be missing the feast that was happening that evening. It wasn't a massive feast like Halloween or Christmas, but it was still pretty big and a new student was coming.

"Hey, Fred!" his twin whispered.

"What?"

"D'you think we could get away with "accidentally" splashing the contents of this potion on snape? I think it's the remains of the laughing potion!"

Fred laughed causing snape to look up abruptly from the essays he was marking.

"What?" he said irritably.

"Sorry professor, just the remains of the laughing potion" Fred said, grinning and winking at his brother. The hilarity of this statement caused George to slip beneath the table in an attempt to stop him from laughing and landing them in more trouble.

Just then the door opened and Argus filch, the caretaker, came in.

"Professor Dumbledore wants you at the feast Severus" he puffed. Snape rose and looked at the twins. "I suppose they'll have to come too." He sighed. "I'll just have to dock twenty points from Gryffindor to make up for the missed time."

Fred was about to complain that snape had already docked fifty points but George stifled him.

They traipsed after snape and filch up from the cold dungeons to the great hall where they joined Gryffindor table and sat next to their brother Ron and the famous harry potter.

"Got out of detention then?" Hermione asked disapprovingly across the table.

"Just, although the slimy git docked another twenty points"

Hermione frowned crossly at this insult to a professor and started on what would have been a long and dull lecture if Dumbledore had not just stood up to speak.

"Good evening pupils, I'm sure you are hungry" there was a murmur of consent and a few people laughed, they had been waiting a while.

"Well, you shall all be able to eat until you burst in a few minutes. But first, a new student is joining Gryffindor in fourth year, please welcome her"

Until that moment most people had not noticed the figure lurking in the shadows at the side of the hall. She stepped forward now, into the light cast by the hundreds of candles floating above. She proceeded to the Gryffindor table and sat down, as it happened, next to Hermione.

Food appeared on the golden platters in front of them and everyone started to help themselves. But Fred was not hungry; he was staring fixedly at the girl. It had been two months since the time and she had gained a strange glowing blue eye, a staff and countless scars since. But there was no denying it. She was the girl who saved his life only to be hit herself. .

George nudged him and he snapped back to reality and fetched some food, but as he ate it he could not taste it. All he felt was awful, burning fear.

* * *

Hester was enjoying herself a great deal more than Fred, the food she was eating was a great deal nicer than any of the hospital food and the people were lovely. She was chatting to a bushy haired girl called Hermione who she had discovered she would be sharing a dorm with. And then there was harry potter sitting opposite her who she remembered hearing about. Next to him was Ronald weasley and on her other side was Ginny weasley, his little sister.

"So you really don't remember what happened to you?" Ron asked.

"Not a jot, Dumbledore seems to think there was some ulterior motive or something but I don't know. Tell me about hogwarts, I remember the basics, but there are lots I don't know"

"The teacher you want to avoid is Severus snape" Ron's elder brother George cut in. his twin Fred was staring dejectedly at his plate playing with his food. Hester had noticed the look he had given her at the start of the feast and was now watching him with her magical eye. His eyes darted back and forth between his plate and Hester. The good thing about the eye was that nobody knew you were looking at them.

She was worried at how he was acting, almost as if he was scared of her, mind you some people were, those close enough to see the many scars that lined her face and the eye was incredibly unnerving. Yet his twin seemed to be unfazed by her and kept giving him funny looks and waving his hand in front of his face. He obviously thought it was odd. So, so did she.

For all Hester knew, they had met in the past. Yet, if that was true, what dark secrets caused him to be so terrified. She had realised what the look in his eyes meant.

"….and watch out for the moving staircases, you never know where you'll end up"

Hester listened with mild interest, but focused her attention on Fred. He was a possibly source of information. She made a mental note to interrogate him at some point. If he knew something, she would get it out of him…. and work out why it affected him so much.

The rest of dinner continued pretty much in this fashion, Hester watching Fred with the eye and the others telling her all she needed to know about hogwarts and a little more.

Afterwards they showed her to the common room and she discovered her meagre belongings in her new dormitory, which she was sharing with Hermione and three others called lavender brown, parvati patil and Martha Claxton. All were eager to ask numerous questions about her past and she was obliged to repeat the facts several times over. When they finally allowed her to sleep and she checked the pocket watch, it was eleven o'clock.


	4. The Name That Nobody Knows

Hello all,

Hope you're enjoying the story so far. Please reveiw and ask questions if there is anything that doesn't make any sense and i will reply in the next chapter.

Hester Antonia Dracolas

* * *

Chapter four: The Name That Nobody Knows

It was a Saturday and lessons wouldn't start until Monday so Hester was free to wander around the castle at her own leisure. She had got up early and avoided meeting with anyone. She had felt like a little solitude.

The castle was quiet at this hour and the corridors were deserted. Hogwarts was a lot more complicated than she had originally thought. She kept discovering hidden passageways and often found herself trying to force open sections of the wall pretending to be doors. Hester was soon hopelessly lost. It was nearly an hour later when she finally came to a landmark she recognised, the library.

Hester pushed the heavy door open with the staff and peered inside. Rows and rows of bookshelves stretched out into the distance. She wandered down the rows pulling books out at random to have a look.

Just before she reached the corner of one row that was filled with books on recent magical history, she heard a scurry of footsteps and a thump. When she turned the corner she discovered a desk and chair seemingly just abandoned. Whoever had just left had knocked their chair over in their haste to get away. Hester picked it up and noticed a book on the table. It was open on a page about lord voldermort.

She checked the title of the book "dark wizards of the last century" before noting the page and putting it in her bag. She felt there was something significant about it, especially as whoever had been reading it had been so hasty to get away. Hester knew about lord voldermort. She wandered if the whole matter related to her.

Her suspicions were definitely aroused when she arrived in the great hall for breakfast.

Fred had got up especially early to go to the library. It was unheard of for a weasley twin to go anywhere near the library and he wasn't going to break that streak. George didn't know what he was doing and for the first time he wasn't going to tell him.

He felt he had to look into Hester, he had an odd notion that it would help to quell the fear that gripped him. He was sure that the man had been a dark wizard and so he looked for books on that subject.

He hovered in front of the restricted section for a moment wondering if anything useful was in there, but he decided against it, he didn't want to get into trouble, for once. Finally he found "dark wizards of the last century" and settled at a table deep into the library. He flicked through, stopping at any page that caught his eye. He eventually decided on reading about voldermort, thinking it would be a good place to start. He skimmed over it until he came to a passage entitled "followers of lord voldermort". He read this properly and then read it again. There was no mention of anyone sounding remotely like the man. The chapter ended there, after a small paragraph. Fred read it "it is to be noted that the dark wizard Mortus Delrada Dracolas was also a powerful supporter of voldermort". His heart stopped beating. Dracolas? That was Hester's surname. Was she related to a dark wizard….the man. He turned to the back of the book to check the name in the index. But it wasn't there, neither under d or m. Fred turned back to the page the name was on and thought.

Suddenly he heard footsteps and the unmistakable sound of the staff on the stone floor. Fred leapt up and scarpered, knocking over the chair in his haste to get away. He ran all the way to the great hall, taking various secret passageways and doubling back on himself along the way.

When he finally arrived and sat down at the Gryffindor table breakfast had appeared and a few people had started eating. Fred fetched a bowl of cereal and calmed himself down sufficiently to rid himself of the red face and the heavy breathing he had gained in running. It was then that she walked in.

Hester sat down opposite Fred and studied him carefully. He had the look of someone who had just been doing something concerning you and was trying to hide it.

"You're up early" she remarked casually.

"I could say the same for you" he replied somewhat coldly.

"And you're not with George."

"So?"

"According to everyone I've met so far you two are inseparable"

He shrugged.

"There isn't a restriction on how early you get up, is there?" Hester tried again.

"Not really, as soon as it's light"

"Oh, that's odd" she paused waiting for a reaction. "Because I was in the library earlier and I swear someone was running away from me"

Some expression flashed across Fred's face but it was too quick for Hester to work out what.

"Maybe it was George, doing his homework for once" he laughed after a pause just long enough to make it not sound like a casual jokey remark.

Hester leaned in and whispered "or maybe it was you"

Fear flashed across his face but before he could reply they were joined by harry and Ron.

"You two are up early" Ron said curiously. "Where have you been?"

"Exploring" Hester answered truthfully while Fred shrugged.

"Are you coming to watch the match today?" harry asked.

"Match?" Hester said bewilderedly.

"Quidditch"

"Quidditch?"

This was evidently something she had not heard about before the accident. Harry and Ron then proceeded to tell her all about the sport. The hall was soon full of people and at some point during the chaos Fred slipped away.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked.

They were seated up in the stands waiting for the match to start. Hermione was anxiously scanning the pitch in search of the teams. Hester fetched out her pocket watch and checked the time before snapping it shut and placing it back in her pocket.

"It's about to start" she said and true to her word the teams marched onto the pitch. Seven in emerald green. Seven in deep blue. Slytherin and ravenclaw. This particular match had drawn the whole school out to watch, not just the housemates of the participating teams. It was the second one of the term, the first being Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, in which Gryffindor had lost so spectacularly there was very little hope of them winning the championship. It was all due to harry being hit by a bludger and being put out of the game. Also a whole lot of other technical stuff that Hester hadn't a hope of understanding. Essentially Gryffindor needed Ravenclaw to lose by a lot of points.

"The irritating thing is, it's a real replay of last year" Ron had said before explaining how harry had been attacked by dementors. Hester had heard of Sirius black's escape from Azkaban. Although somehow she felt that she wasn't being told the whole story of third year, especially as harry was unwilling to divulge much information on Sirius.

"Where did you get your watch?" harry asked bringing her back to the present.

"Found with it" she said sharply, she was getting a bit sick of being asked questions like that. She obviously couldn't remember. Where they trying to catch her out or something?

"Can I see it?"

"Sure. Actually, it's the reason I know what my name is. It's inscribed on the lid"

Hester showed harry the words on the underside of the lid and then attention turned back to the game. Although she did notice, George sitting alone next to Ginny. And Fred was nowhere to be seen.

After Fred had left the great hall, he went straight back to the library. Everyone would be outside watching the match; there'd be no one to disturb him. When he reached the table he had been out he was shocked and disconcerted to find that the book had gone. Hester must have taken it. He reasoned. That's why she knew I'd been in here. It wasn't the most rational of arguments, but it was coming from a suddenly very paranoid person.

He decided he would get some more books while he was in the library, coming more than twice was too risky if he didn't want to be spotted. He got as many books on dark wizards as he could fit in his bag. He couldn't find any directly relating to Mortus Delrada Dracolas. When he was satisfied that his bag would surely break if he put anymore books in, he left and ran to the Gryffindor common room.

Once there, he skirted the odd Gryffindor that hadn't bothered to go to the match, and went up to his dorm. He hid the majority of the books under the bed and began searching through the first one "dark wizards in detail: were they as bad as they seemed". He checked the index. Nothing. And then read the passage on voldermort. Again nothing. Then he checked the heading of every chapter to see if they gave any clues. But alas, he could find nothing. Even when he skimmed through and looked at all the pictures. He put it away on a new pile under his bed and picked up the next "a history of dark wizards".

He worked his way through book after book and nowhere was there a mention of Mortus Dracolas. The closest it got was the mention of "other supporters of lord voldermort", "voldermort also had a few supporters who were dark wizards as powerful as himself" and "some of the dark wizards affiliated with lord voldermort were not death eaters". The books generally seemed to give the impression that there were some shadowy figures that worked for voldermort but were much higher in rank than the other followers.

The best book had been the one he was searching earlier. He was going to have to get it back off her. He was going to have to steal it.


	5. A Talent Is Discovered

Chapter 5: A Talent Is Discovered

The match was a success. Slytherin had beaten ravenclaw soundly and as long as they lost against hufflepuff and Gryffindor won against Slytherin and Hufflepuff, everything would work out perfectly.

It was a nice day and although most people were knee-deep under piles of homework, nobody was going to waste the rare sunshine, there was always Sunday, after all. Hester, however, found she preferred shadows and dingy rooms to the bright sunlight. It made her feel vulnerable. So she went inside, with the intention of fetching the book she had found in the library earlier and searching through it to see what Fred, for she was sure it was Fred, had not wanted her to see he was reading.

She said the password, which she had had no difficulty in remembering thanks to her empty head, and entered the Gryffindor common room. It was deserted. She walked up the steps to her dorm slowly, feeling stiff from all the time she had spent sitting down. When she approached the door to the dorm, however, she noticed something was amiss. She had been the last one out that morning before the match and she had closed the door completely. She had gone back up to leave her bag. All the people who'd have any reason to go in the dorm had been at the match and hadn't returned to the common room. Why then, was the door slightly ajar?

Very quietly, Hester flattened herself against the wall, so that she was in the prime position for seeing through the gap. She closed her normal eye instinctively and focused on the gap. Suddenly her sight zoomed in through the door with a nauseating speed that left her feeling queasy. It was like she had entered the room. She couldn't move for fright.

When she finally calmed down enough, she figured that if she opened the other eye, it would refocus. She did so and her vision returned to the wooden door. Hester took a couple of deep breaths and decided to see if it would happen again. She closed the normal eye and focused. Whoosh. Her sight was inside again. This time she was ready for the nausea.

Hester was now able to take stock of her surroundings. Everything looked as it had before. Could the wind have blown the door open? No, she had firmly shut it.

Confident, the coast was clear, she entered the room. Now she was there in the flesh it was easy to notice what was wrong. Her bag had moved several inches to the left. The depression it had left earlier in the duvet spread past the bag itself. Suggesting, someone had moved it.

Hester hobbled over and picked the bag up. The catch was done up. She had left it undone. Somebody had been in there, opened her bag and possibly, taken something. She emptied the contents onto her bed. It was all there, her jumper, her ink and quills, her copy of hogwarts: a history which she had been reading, some coins: three galleons, nine sickles and a handful of Knuts, the key to the bank vault that had mysteriously turned up in her name but the goblins could tell her nothing about, and… wait a minute. The book from the library, was missing, "dark wizards of the last century". It had been taken.

Fred?

Fred was in his room with the book. He had done it. He had gone into her dorm and taken it from her bag. Now all that he needed to do was read it. This time he was going to have to actually read it, as opposed to flicking through and only reading bits of interest.

Half an hour later he had only managed the first two and a half of fifty-eight chapters. The passages were long and confusing and the author obviously hadn't heard of such a thing as paragraphs, the whole thing was one long block. The chapter on voldermort had been easier to read than this and actually had a couple of paragraphs. Still, Fred knew he must continue on in the hope of finding something interesting.

Twenty minutes later he fell asleep. He had barely slept the night before, due to being absolutely terrified, and had got up early that morning. His head hit the pillow and the book slid out of his hand and onto the floor falling so that it ended up hidden by the bed covers.

George weasley was worried about his brother Fred. Surely it was not normal for him to be terrified of a new girl, get up early and miss a quidditch match? Was he ill? He had seemed fine up til that point. Hadn't he?

Now that George thought about it, perhaps he hadn't. There had been little things, a certain look in his eye when he was tired and he thought no one was looking, forgetting things, occasional clumsiness. Sometimes he looked…..vacant. George couldn't quite place where it had all started. Some point in the summer holidays perhaps.

Anyway, as Fred was nowhere to be found either out in the brilliant sunshine or inside having lunch in the great hall, basically being normal – Because you'd have to be ill, not normal or very hungry to stay inside on a day like this – George was going to look for him. He decided to start with the Gryffindor common room, the most likely place he would be. He wasn't going to include the library in his search.

The common room itself was deserted, but as he climbed the stairs up to the second-year, fourth year and sixth year dorms he was met by Hester crashing down. They collided halfway and it was only Hester's surprising strength and quick reflexes that prevented him from toppling over and falling back down the stairs.

"Have you seen your brother?" she asked after she released the front of George's shirt.

"Which one?" he asked with a grin, it was possibly his favourite thing to say. After "mischief managed" or course.

"Your twin," she said coldly. George was a bit taken aback. She was acting a little strangely. Mind you, everything about her was strange. What with her eye and staff, her funny mannerisms, her peculiar amnesia and the way that she didn't limp as much when she was distracted.

"Actually, I was looking for him myself, I haven't seen him since yesterday" he said with a hint of annoyance

"Have you've noticed he's acting strange?" Hester asked.

"Well obviously, I've known him for sixteen years now"

"Yes"

"Well, what d'you think it's all about?"

"Me" she said mysteriously

"There's no need to be egotistical." George said grinning again.

"I'm not" she narrowed her eyes "I'm serious, he won't look me in the eye –"

"Well it is kinda creepy" George interrupted.

"Yes, I know that thank you!" Hester snapped. "As I was saying, he won't look me in the eye, he won't talk to me, he avoids me –"

"Aww! D'you think he's in love?" George couldn't resist the tease. But the look he got in return was not worth it.

"Yes, I'm sure that if you _loved _someone you would run away from them!" she said sarcastically.

"When did that happen?"

"Early this morning, when I was in the Libra –"

"Hang on a minute! Library? Did you actually see him?"

"No, but –"

"There we go, you see, you will never find a weasley twin anywhere near the library, I'm sure somebody thought you were filch."

"firstly, it was light and therefore we were allowed to be up, secondly how do you explain that when I went down to breakfast Fred was the only person there, he panicked considerably when I accused him of being in the library, then disappeared and hasn't been seen since. Oh yeah, and somebody, namely him has now stolen the book he left behind in the library from my bag. He was the only Gryffindor not at the match or now outside in the sunshine or eating in the great hall."

George was speechless. This was so unlike the brother he knew that it couldn't possibly be him, yet it had to be.

"Fine. How about we find him together and ask him. And I still think you're egotistical."

"Definition of egotistical: loving, respecting and admiring oneself more than any other being in the World. When you simply think, you're the best. I.e. most beautiful, most clever, most strong etc. I think it's fair to say I don't have that sort of confidence. Another part of being egotistical is thinking that things that concern you are more important than things that don't. Personally I perceive me thinking that this business relates to me is more like paranoia. When you can't remember a thing about your past and the first person you remember talking to you tells you they think someone is plotting against you and is going to come back for you, believe me you feel paranoid"

Hester said all that rapidly like she'd rather not be saying it. George didn't quite know how to answer so he stuck to his normal nature by raising his hands in the air defensively and saying "alright, alright, don't go all hermioneish on me, it was just a joke."

She huffed and folded her arms. "Are we going to go look for him then?"

"It might be quicker if we split up" George said quickly so as to avoid having to speak to her any longer.

"I beg to differ, I'll get lost within seconds, you know the school better than me and where he might be. If we split up it'll just be like you looking and me irritated."

George resisted saying "aren't you irritated already?" and sufficed with a quick nod to show he understood before hurrying up to his dorm to check if Fred was there. Hester was reluctant to return up the stairs and blamed it on her leg, although George remained unconvinced.


	6. A Momentary Lapse In Memory

Chapter 6: A Momentary Lapse In Memory

Hester waited at the bottom of the stairs. She was unwilling to return up to the dorms in case it happened again. She had got over the initial shock of her eye zooming in but she was now starting to panic. It was obviously some sort of sorcery. There was something about the incident that related to her past life, she could feel it at the back of her mind but she couldn't quite reach it.

George appeared then and interrupted her confused thoughts.

"Well?" she asked, hearing again the underlying tone of dictatorship that shadowed her words at the slightest hint of annoyance.

"He's up there" George said gesturing behind himself up the stairs. "Fast asleep."

Hester had a strong urge to order George to go wake Fred up, but she battled against it and said "I'll talk to him later then"

"Right"

Fred did not reappear from the dorm til supper at which point he avoided her and Hester deemed it to be a too crowded place for an interrogation. Not an interrogation, a conversation. She had to stop doing that…..

On Sunday Hermione took it upon herself to get Hester up to date on the work already done that term and get her a timetable and show her where all the classrooms were and take her to the library to get her some good books _and _help her do the potions homework that she reckoned snape would've expected her to do. Not to mention all the other lots of homework Hermione tried to get her to do. Hester knew she meant well, but she had other more pressing matters she wanted to attend to.

When lessons started on Monday, Fred was even harder to get hold of, when he wasn't in lessons he was in detention for something or other, and if he wasn't in detention, he was surrounded by people. The closest she had got was during one lunchtime when she was walking along a corridor and Fred ran round the corner suddenly and crashed into her. She had dropped all her books and he, somewhat reluctantly stopped to help her pick them up before racing off again.

Hester had problems herself, she had lots of homework and was struggling to keep up, finding that often her memory failed her and she didn't know things. Professor Snape seemed to take great pleasure in asking her questions she was unlikely to know the answer to and it seemed that she had never done anything on astronomy.

George was not being very helpful. He tended to try and put her off talking to Fred at every turn, coming up with excuses like he was worried about his health, and that he was in detention when he wasn't and so on. Hester did admit that Fred looked ill in the fleeting moments she actually saw him, but it was very important that she talked to him. He knew something, she was sure. George said that he would ask him but often seemed reluctant.

With all that going on it was four weeks before anything of note happened. And when it did it was unpleasant.

Fred was feeling surprisingly happy. He had avoided Hester for four weeks, his brother's probing on his health and he had was over halfway through the book. Although he'd had to read it in the middle of the night when all his other dorm mates were asleep, which had left him exhausted and was the cause of people thinking he was ill. He had not as of yet found anything relating to Mortus, but he was confident he would soon. It was all going rather well for him.

George, meanwhile was having doubts about helping Hester, the more he was around her, the more strange things he noticed. Sometimes she would say something in a menacing and dictatorish fashion or order somebody around like they were much lower than her and she was disgusted even to talk to them, after which she would suddenly be embarrassed and apologetic as if it wasn't her saying the things. At other times she would pause before talking and pull a face like she was having an internal battle against something. Nobody else seemed to notice it though.

It was a week or so after the Halloween feast that it happened. It was a Thursday and she was in the Gryffindor common room, practising the accio charm for charms homework. Hester and Ron had not fully mastered it and harry was utterly useless at it. Hermione was patiently showing him again and again, sending objects flying gracefully round the room.

"Accio!" harry said waving his wand furiously at the cushion in front of him. It refused to budge.

"Let me try" Hester said pushing harry out of the way. "Accio". The cushion launched itself furiously off the sofa and flew at Hester hitting her squarely in the face. She lost her balance and toppled onto the chair behind her. Harry and Ron burst out laughing.

"Well, I'd like to see you do better" Hester muttered irritably. She had had a headache all day and the cushion had not improved it. Infact, if anything, she now felt worse.

"Accio" Ron grinned with a flourish of his wand. The cushion did a sort of flop and lay still.

"No! No! No!" Hermione reprimanded him. "You're flourishing your wand to much! Accio!" the cushion flew to her hand and she put it back on the sofa. "Harry, you try" she added.

Hester's headache had now migrated into full blown nausea, dizziness and pain. Her vision began to slide.

Harry raised his wand "accio"; the cushion fell of the sofa. "Accio!" it rose about a foot and fell again."ACCIO!" it rose slightly higher.

The girl had forgotten her name. What was she doing here? She should be with her father, she arranged to meet him. Who were these people?

"ACCIO!" Harry yelled.

Instead of seeing a friend casting a spell in practise, the girl saw an enemy about to attack her. She yelled at him and disarmed him before he had time to do anything.

"Hey! I was doing well there!" he protested. But the girl did not understand the words.

"You dare attack me! ME! You shall pay for your crimes" she yelled her voice higher and colder than ever before.

"What?" harry asked utterly bemused.

Realisation flashed across Hermione's face "harry get down!"

Just in time, harry through himself to the ground avoiding the staff that the girl had swung at him. He rolled sideways as it came smashing down to the floor.

"Hester!" Hermione yelled. The girl turned her head. What was this inferior being calling her? It sounded familiar…

"Accio wand!" harry yelled, his wand flew to his hand and he pointed it at the girl. "Stupefy!"

The girl collapsed and lay slumped against the sofa.

"-you should write to snuffles about it harry"

"Shhhh! She is waking up!"

Hester opened her bleary eyes; they took a couple of seconds to focus. Three anxious faces hovered over her.

"Urgh!" she groaned. "What happened?"

"What's my name?" Hermione asked.

"What?"

"What's my name?" Hermione repeated.

"Hermione Granger of course, unless you've changed it in the past five minutes"

They let out a sigh of relief.

"What?"

"You don't remember?" Ron asked curiously.

"Remember what? This is getting tiresome; can't you just tell me what happened?"

"Well," harry began glancing at Hermione "you went sorta crazy"

"In what sort of way?" she said sceptically

"I was practising accio and suddenly you yelled "you dare attack me? Me! You shall…uh…"

"Pay for your crimes" Hermione finished.

"Yeah, something like that" Ron added helpfully.

"And then you tried to hit me with your staff and-"

"Wait!" Hester ordered. "I think I…."

The memories flooded back, the anger she had felt and the confusion, she had forgotten who she was…

"I remember" she sighed. "I forgot who I was; I thought you were the enemy…sorry about that"

"No worries" harry waved her off with one hand. "I learnt the accio charm!"

Hester laughed. "Who's snuffles?" she asked.

"Oh, just a friend" harry muttered in thoroughly unconvincing manner. Hester decided to leave it for the moment, but she had some ideas about it.

"I reckon you had an aftershock" Hermione said wisely.

"I what?"

"An aftershock!" Hermione repeated. "From the first case of amnesia, you had a momentary lapse in your memory"

"Well, if that's the case, I should talk to Dumbledore, he told me to come to him if anything weird happened."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea" Hermione nodded. "We'll take you".

They left the common room. Hester was feeling nervous. She had left out one detail about what she remembered, she had remembered some of the stuff she had originally forgot. Back to just before her "accident". She was running to the middle of a road to push a figure out of the way of an oncoming lorry. A boy. She collided with him and their eyes met. It was Fred.


	7. The Truth is Told

Hello everybody,

i haven't had a single review and i would really appreciate if i had at least one, so please do.

Thank you,

Hester Antonia Dracolas

* * *

The Truth is told

Hester was watching a phoenix. She could not remember ever seeing one outside of a book and he was fascinating to watch. His long feathers seemed like flames, reds, yellows, oranges and browns. He was watching her back with an intelligent, perceptive eye, a golden jewel. He sat proudly on his perch surveying her.  
Dumbledore was talking to harry outside of his office, presumably about Hester's attempt to concuss him with her staff. Or something else… there was definitely something going on they didn't want her to know about…snuffles. Just at that moment Dumbledore entered his office.  
"So, tell me everything"  
Hester did, reluctantly. Well, most of it anyway.  
When she had finished Dumbledore gazed over the top of his half moon glasses at her, "is that everything?"  
"uh..well after I remembered what I had done i…remembered a little bit more."  
"about what?"  
"from when I first had amnesia, I remember being hit by the lorry" she left out the bit about Fred.  
"excellent!" Dumbledore exclaimed excitedly.  
"why is that a good thing?"  
"if you can remember a little, you can remember a lot!" Dumbledore explained wisely. Hester still didn't entirely get his point, but she nodded.  
"I have already talked to harry about what you were like during your…Forgetfulness. Might I ask as to your feelings at this point, harry has made it out to me that you were just frightened an thought they were attacking you, but I sense there is more to it."  
"I was angry…angry that they should attack me I think I said something like that..." hester said uncertainly

"'You dare attack me! ME! You shall pay for your crimes' I believe" Dumbledore quoted.  
"yeah…something like that. I was thinking stuff like that they were inferior beings? I think. There was something else….i didn't think I was supposed to be there.."  
"you didn't know where you were?"  
"no, more than that. I was supposed to be somewhere else… I was doing something important…perhaps meeting someone…..i think." It was all a bit vague. Hester didn't feel she was being very useful, she had remembered most of what had happened, but wasn't just all a bit hazy it was also that she was ashamed that she had acted like that and she was scared that she would.  
"I believe that it would be beneficial for you to think it over, I have asked your friends not to tell anybody what occurred, you were lucky that no one was watching at the time. Go now and tell me if you remember anything"  
"ok" hester rose and turned to leave the room. As she turned, the golden glint of the phoenix caught her eye and she stopped. "There's something else, professor!"  
"yes?" he inquired.  
"my father. I was supposed to be meeting my father"  
"how intriguing" he mused.  
"why?"  
"that proves that you have at least one parent, one parent who has not come to fetch you"  
"what do you mean, that my father is…evil?"  
"not at all, just an interesting point" Dumbledore smiled.  
Not feeling entirely satisfied with this answer, Hester made for the door.  
"His name is Fawkes" He added. Hester smiled to herself, Dumbledore was indeed perceptive.

* * *

Dumbledore was mildly perturbed by the last realisation of Hester. It meant she had gone willingly to her father that day. This meant that his other reports must retain false information. Was she still to be given a chance?

* * *

Madame pomfrey had ordered her to stay in the infirmary the night and take Friday off. Hester found herself wandering about the school pretending to be exploring but actually just plain lost. It made her think about that first Saturday and the library. She still hadn't managed to talk to Fred. She knew that he held much needed information, maybe if she talked to him she would remember everything.  
Stuck in her own engrossing thoughts Hester didn't notice where she was going and suddenly walked into the wall when the corridor turned sharply. Sadly this inelegance did not go unnoticed.  
"graceful," George said laughing at her. He was leaning against the wall a few feet away from her  
"Thanks. I really appreciate your insightful comments" she replied sarcastically as she backed away from the wall, shaking her sore head. "shouldn't you be in lessons?"  
"what's that to you?" he smirked throwing his arm round her shoulders  
"don't touch me!" she panicked, instinctively dropping to the ground. George's arm fell to his side and his grin left his face.  
"you are weird" he remarked.  
"I am not!" she snapped.  
"oh come on!" he was laughing again. "half the time you're all smiley smiley and friendly, and then half the time you go all cold and standoffish and the remaining half you're just plain scary!"  
"you can only have two halves" Hester muttered.  
"what are you even doing? Shouldn't you be in lessons?"  
"Madame pomfrey told me not to go to any lessons. I shall presume you are aware of the circumstances." She said turning up her nose at him and  
"naturally, your majesty" he mock bowed.  
"oh, grow up!"  
"What an absurd suggestion!" George slapped a hand over his mouth with a look of exaggerated outrage on his face.  
"are you ever going to answer my question?"  
"alright, alright. I'm skipping class."  
"and fred is…?"  
"somewhere…" he said sheepishly.  
"you have no idea do you."  
"nope"  
"right. Where is this?"  
"how can you be lost this far into term? We'd found all the secret passages within two weeks"  
"well, I have a little difficulty remembering things," Hester sighed.  
"come on then" George smiled and grabbed her wrist towing her off down the corridor.

* * *

That night Hester lay awake for hours in her dormitory. Eventually, heartily bored of her inability to sleep she got up and went downstairs into the common room. She was nearly at the foot of the stairs when she heard voices. It was harry, Ron and Hermione and somebody else whose voice she did not recognise. As quietly as she could she peered round the corner and spotted three figures hunched up by the fire.  
"-but what should we do about it?" harry was asking.  
"it seems to me like she knows as little about it as you do" said the unknown voice. They were talking about her.  
"maybe we could help her remember" Ron suggested. "how do you normally get people to remember things?"  
"whack her over the head?" harry joked.  
"somehow I feel she wouldn't allow you to do that, harry" Hermione said shaking her head.  
"keep an eye on her, if anything else weird happens, talk to Dumbledore, he'll know what to do. I better leave now, goodnight"  
"goodnight Sirius" harry said and they stood and backed away from the fire. Hester caught a brief glimpse of a long haired face in the fire and there was a pop and it was gone.  
"so, care to tell me about Sirius black?" she said loudly. Harry spun around so fast he almost fell over.  
"what are you doing?" he exclaimed panicking.  
"calm down, I barely know who Sirius black is, just what you told me at the quidditch match. I'm just curious." She smiled  
"harry" Hermione said putting a hand on his arm. "it wouldn't hurt to tell her"  
"I'll only keep asking" Hester reminded them cheerfully  
"what were you doing sneaking up on us?" ron said suspiciously.  
"ok," she lost the smile, her voice was cold. "I'll make you a deal, you tell me who Sirius black is and any other secrets you might be hiding and I'll tell you everything I remember and anything I remember past this point."  
"and if we disagree?" harry asked.  
"you want to know as much as I do. I should imagine you will agree"  
"fine, sit down. It's quite a long story"  
So they told her everything. About voldermort, Sirius, the philosopher's stone, the basilisk. And she told them all she remembered, fred and the book, her new ability and what Dumbledore had said to her.


	8. It All Goes Very Wrong

The first lesson on Monday was defense against the dark arts with the somewhat terrifying professor Moody who everybody enjoyed telling her she looked like. Which of course was a pretty fair description due to her blue eye and all her scars, but still not the most favourable of comments. Today moody had decided to go over the imperious curse again, as she had missed the first time round and few people had managed to throw it off properly.

He started with harry, as he had been so good at it. Harry threw it off in a matter of seconds to the applause of the class. Then moody worked through the class alphabetically, leaving out Hester, and when he reached the end it was her turn.

"come to the front" he said and she awkwardly limped up to him tripping over several bags along the way. She could just imagine what George would say, should he have witnessed the debacle.

"I will place the curse on you and order you to do something, you will try to resist."

Hester nodded and he raised his wand "imperious". When she had watched all the other gryffindors do this they had all had a dreamy expression on their faces and generally lost control of their senses. However, Hester felt fine and completely unaffected by the spell. Had he cast it wrongly?

"jump up and down on the spot" moody instructed. She didn't move, not remotely. She didn't even flinch like harry did. Slightly perturbed moody added "run around the classroom"

"I can't run, even when I'm not under an imperious curse." She replied. The class gasped in astonishment and harry and Hermione looked at each other worriedly. Hester knew they would be asking her a dozen tiresome questions later. They had done it all weekend, if she was silent for more than a second they would start "how are you feeling now?" "is your sight normal?" "tell me again about the accident". It drove her half crazy, mainly because she often didn't want to relive the experiences…and it made her head hurt, the last time she got headaches it didn't go so well.

"well.." moody remarked. "that was very impressive… Now class, homework is revising the unforgiveable curses, I do not expect any work in, although we will have a test."

The class groaned and started to pick up their belongings and leave. Hermione, Ron and Harry were waiting for her, but Moody wanted to talk to her so she waved at them to go.

"I'll see you at potions" she promised them but they were still very reluctant to leave. She had to practically push them out the room. She returned to Moody's desk, knowing just what he would be asking her. He stared at her with his blue eye and she felt like he was looking right through her to the wall behind her.

"how did you feel back them?"

"normal."

"really?"

"yes," It was running just as her conversations with harry did. For heaven's sake, didn't they realise that when she said normal, she _meant_ normal.

"not remotely fuggy or confused?"

"no. " she said exasperatedly. "look sir, I don't mean to be rude, but… are these questions really necessary? I felt like the spell hadn't been cast."

"may I see that eye of yours?" Moody said, changing the topic.

"I can't take it out." Hester replied warily, suspicious of his sudden diversion.

"have you ever tried?" it was an interesting question. Now she thought about it she had never questioned Dumbledore when he told her that she shouldn't.

"No, sir, I haven't. Would it be safe?"

"Is it safe to keep it in? Consider that,"

" I suppose so sir, except I wouldn't be sure how"

"like this" Moody demonstrated.

Hesitantly Hester placed her thumb on the smooth surface of the orb and encouragingly she couldn't feel anything so she put her finger on the other side and tried to pull it out. Her fingers slipped and it started to spin, although her sight stayed straight ahead rather disconcertingly. She tried again, this time digging her nails in, but it was like glass and she couldn't get a grip on it. It was also very hard to stop it spinning as when she put a finger on it, it carried on, like it was wet. Hester suddenly decided that was quite a disgusting idea and gave up on the process.

"no, it's impossible" she said, thoroughly annoyed.

"oh well, maybe you should try again later"

"yeah, perhaps. May I go now? I'm going to be late for my next lesson, sir."

"yes, yes. Off you go"

Hester hurried out of the classroom and ran down the corridor. She was now starting to feel considerably dizzy and her headache had got worse. She tried not to think about it and hoped she wouldn't be in a very public place if anything happened. _Especially _if Harry and Ron were around.

She suddenly realised she was walking down a dead end and had to turn around. When she finally found the stairs she kept trying to go up and nearly stepped off the end of one of the moving staircases into empty air. By the time Hester had reached the dungeons she was fifteen minutes late. She wasn't entirely sure what snape said to her as she entered but she was sure it involved great point deduction. She took her place besides Hermione, who took one look at her and immediately shushed Harry and Ron who were both trying to ask her ten questions at once. Hester placed her heavy head upon the desk and fell asleep within five seconds. Her mind spiralled into a series of crazy non-sensical dreams full of fragments of memories both recent and old. As soon as they entered her head she forgot them until…

* * *

_It was a sunny day, sometime in August, the girl was not sure exactly when. Summer was definitely coming to an end though, as the mad rush for last minute buying of school supplies had begun and the streets were mile-long traffic jams that stretched from one end of the city centre to the other._

_The girl was hovering in the entrance to an alleyway. She was wearing a long, black, hooded cloak that covered half her face and nearly reached the ground. Underneath the cloak she wore long black robes. The people who noticed her marvelled at the long clothes in the heat, then they noted her hidden face and hurried on. The sleeves were too long and half-hid her pale hands._

_She was looking at an old-fashioned, gold pocket watch that was on a chain connected to a pocket hidden inside her robes. She sighed and snapped the watch shut, putting it away in the pocket. The man she was waiting for was late. She had though that he might not come, he would not enjoy being in this place. That was why she chose it. _

* * *

Ron was nudging her urgently. Hester cracked open her normal eye blearily to see snape looking over her with a furious expression. She was definitely in trouble this time, she'd be lucky if she got away with detention. She sat up and tried to focus on the world around her, although all she seemed to be able to process was the slytherins behind her laughing, very loudly. He couldn't be allowing could he? Did she really look that silly?

The laughter became really high pitched and she decided it was her own messed up senses. The laughter became lower but sharper, a single voice. Where had she heard that before? Snape had grown a pair of green horns and seemed to be talking about chocolate. It was at this point that Hester's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backwards off her chair sprawling on the floor. The laughter was still there but it seemed to be coming from her own mouth.

She stared up at the faces above her, Harry and Ron, seemingly brewing up questions to ask when she returned to normality, Hermione looking worried, snape looking angry and several slytherins looking creeped out. A pale, pointed, blond-haired face was looking down at her interestedly.

He looks like a ferret She thought and blacked out.

* * *

Draco malfoy's Pov

Draco was in potions with the gryffindors having a competition with Blaise Zabini as to who could throw the most ingredients in gryffindors' cauldrons before they exploded. Well that was the theory, most of the ingredients missed by metres but it was somehow even funnier when they hit the back of their heads. His favourite moment was when he threw bat spleens at that buck-teethed know-it-all Hermione Granger and it fell just beside her cauldron. She then picked them up and put them in the cauldron for him. Blaise nearly fell over in fits of laughter when her potion started smoking tonnes of orange smoke right in her face.

About fifteen minutes into the lesson the new girl walked in looking slightly out of it. Snape immediately pounced on her and started ranting. Yes! Another twenty points off gryffindor!

"ten minutes til she falls asleep" Blaise whispered to him and he sniggered.

"five minutes"

"a sickle"

"you have yourself a deal my friend"

As it happened they were both wrong as she was already fast asleep.

"how long til snape notices then" Draco said after Blaise successfully argued his way out of paying up.

"half an hour"

"no, I reckon an hour"

"_that_ long?"

"oh come on! She's hidden by her cauldron and her friends will cover for her." Draco pointed out.

"are they actually her friends, whenever I see them she's trying to escape and they're badgering her with questions"

"you mean lioning her"

"that is the most awful pun you have ever come up with" Blaise smirked while shaking his head in disbelief. "What next? Are you going to be saying "be slytherin you" the next time you say goodbye"

He had put on a silly high pitched voice to impersonate him and Draco felt insulted so he chucked a horned slug into Blaise cauldron and watched with satisfaction as it turned violently pink.

Blaise growled and put some mistletoe berries in Draco's cauldron. It emitted copious amounts of steam and then turned grey.

"what the hell did you just do?" Draco laughed and the war began. By the time they had run out of ingredients their cauldrons were both sludge coloured and Draco's was sparking. Blaise had melted his ladle to a twisted stump.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" snape suddenly yelled which caught their attention. Snape was standing over the sleeping form of Hester with a murderous look.

"yes! A sickle to me!" Blaise muttered. Draco was too engrossed in the events to correct him.

Hester was now trying to lift her head up to look at snape and looking like she was about to throwup.

"detention!" snape yelled "and another thirty points from gryffindor! First you have the temerity to walk in late and then you FALL ASLEEP through my lesson. What do you have say to that?"

Hester groaned and muttered something incomprehensively, she sounded drunk. The slytherins all started sniggering. Snape continued ranting and she continued muttering random words. The sniggering burst out into full scale laughing.

And then, without warning, she suddenly fell backwards off her chair and sprawled on the floor. There was a nasty thump as she hit her head going down. Her eyes were rolling back into her head and she was twitching. But most worryingly, she was laughing. On and on, crazed and half-panicked.

Draco and Blaise leant over the front of their desk to peer at her. Hester eyes refocused for a moment and she stopped laughing "you look like a ferret" she said and then fell unconscious.


	9. Two and a Half Conversations

Hester woke up in the infirmary with a pounding headache and she knew just what had happened. She had to remember her dream; she knew it was really important. She wished it hadn't happened in the middle of a lesson, especially one with slytherins in it.

"DAMN!" she muttered to herself and tried to sit up. After this she stood up just as rapidly… and fell over.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again" said an amused voice. "Graceful"

"shut up and go away," Hester snapped from the floor.

"no need to be rude"

"just what I could say for you"

"well, thanks. Do you need any help?"

Hester stared at the grinning face above her and thought that she spent too much time on the floor… and in the hospital for that matter.

"no, I'm just fine here on the floor" she said sarcastically

"I get the picture" George laughed and knelt down beside her. "you do always seem to be getting into these situations" he scooped her up and placed her back on the bed.

"it would be a lot easier if you helped me talk to your brother"

George frowned "did you have to mention that?".

"Before I go crazy, I'm halfway there!" seeing the look on his face she added "please?"

His face cracked into a smile "that's possibly the first time you've said that to me, you know"

"I guessed I'm not very used to saying it. God, I have such a messed up past,"

"hey," George said, sitting down on the bed beside her. "don't be so hard on yourself, "

"hey, I would find that advice really useful if you weren't laughing at me"

He grinned. "where's Madame pomfrey anyway?"Hester asked.

"oh, somewhere"

"that's reassuring"

"anyway, do you want me to help you or not" He asked. "I'll take that as a yes."

"ok, so this is my plan. Right, you act all friendly as if nothing had ever happened – "

"how is not asking Fred going to help me in asking him?" she interrupted.

"shush! Let me finish. Ok so you do that and then – you know about the Yule ball right?"

"the what-now?"

"the Yule ball, it's this party thing they're having at Christmas this year for some reason, they don't normally, but anyway. So, you get Fred to come to that with you and then – "

"Wait a second! No way am I doing that!"

"why not?"

"several reasons" Hester muttered. "what? You want to know them? Oh fine. Ok to start off with I can't dance – "

"I can fix that" George interrupted she gave him a look and continued.

"I don't have anything to wear – "

"I can fix that too!"

"and finally – if you would let me finish – why would he want to go with me? He doesn't like me."

"actually, a correction, you said yourself that he was _scared _of you, not that he didn't like you. Besides," he put his head on one side and smiled at her. "you're beautiful, you know."

Hester waved it off embarrassed, "still, I don't think I can do that"

"leave it to me" he said standing up. "I'll deal with it, don't you worry. See you later"

"thanks, George"

He left and Madame Pomfrey hurried in immediately, "oh, good, you're awake. Don't strain yourself too much dear. Has Mr. Weasley Left? Oh good. You should get some rest now"

"but I've only just woken up" Hester complained. She was still trying to process what had happened and why it felt so strange. As Madame Pomfrey left and she was on her own it suddenly came to her. She'd never had a friend before. Just how sad had her life been before? Was that accident such a bad thing if she was feeling happy for the first time, properly happy?

She closed her eyes contemplating this fact and slipped into dreams.

* * *

Later Ron, Harry and Hermione came to see her and they didn't bring good news.

"how bad is it?"

"the whole school thinks you're bonkers!" Ron said cheerfully.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded. "it's really not that bad, just the slytherins and no sane person ever believes their rumours. Oh and our potions class, but they don't really count, parvati patil told her sister in ravenclaw, but otherwise…" she trailed off seeing the look on Hester's face.

"if it helps" Harry added, "half the school thought you were crazy anyway."

"no harry, that really doesn't help" she sighed. "tell me what happened, it's all unclear to me"

"well," Hermione began. "you walked in late and snape docked points. You fell asleep immediately, forty-five minutes later snape noticed and woke you up, he was furious, you got all sorts of punishments, detention the works. You stared at him blankly, fell off your chair and started laughing. It was really weird…"

"oh, yeah I thought I was laughing…" Hester said awkwardly.

"you were twitching too," Ron pointed out. "and your eyes were rolling around"

"that's sounding really pretty"

"it really wasn't" harry said seriously

"yeah, I got that one"

"oh, I have this for you" Hermione said brandishing Hester's staff and placing it by the bed. "apparently you left in the classroom and moody didn't notice until later"

"oh my god" Hester gasped.

"what?" They chorused excitedly.

"it's just that…. No that can't be right"

"what is it?"

"If I didn't have my staff, then… now this might be wrong, cause it was fuzzy but…. I think I was running"

Hermione gasped and put one hand in front of her mouth.

"have I missed something?" Ron asked confused.

"oh come on Ron!" Hester said. "_Running!_ I was running! I can't run, my leg is all busted up, you should know that."

"well yes, but I still don't see the point."

"well neither do I, but it's very significant, I'm sure. Look, there's something else. When I fell asleep I had the weirdest dream. It was like I was going back to the accident. I was waiting for somebody…somebody dangerous and I'd chosen a crowded place. It was sometime in august."

"a memory!" Hermione said happily. "Oh! You don't think that your eye…"

"what about it?"

"well this maybe rubbish but… I think it's your eye that stops you remembering"

"that's sounds right. Cause it was when it was spinning that I remembered. _And _ I don't think I was wearing it in the memory."

" Maybe if you took it out, you'd remember everything. But it might be dangerous." Harry suggested.

"after I've talked to Fred perhaps, let me tell you about George's plan"

She explained to them about the Yule ball. "frankly I don't think it'll work"

"yeah, you could just ask him yourself" Ron said.

"no, you idiot, the Yule ball thing, I don't see why I can't just talk to him straight away"

"George, knows what he's doing I guess" Ron mused. "you know what? I think I know when your memory was. We went to diagon alley on the 15th of August; there was this confusion when George let off a load of fireworks in the middle of the road. Mum skinned them alive for it. But I think Fred must have slipped off, dad found they'd nicked some of his muggle money, he must have been doing something out of diagon alley. he must have SEEN SOMEONE!"

"the man I was meeting! My…father! But wait, what is so frightening about my father?"

"maybe it's you-know-you" Ron laughed

"a) that's not funny b) voldermort is dead" Hester pointed out irratatedly.

"don't say the name!" Hermione scolded. "I guess we better leave. We'll talk about this but let's go along with George's plan for now"

"just one more thing" Hester asked. "that blonde slytherin, what's his name?"

"what, the one you said looked like a ferret?" Harry asked.

"I said that out _loud?_" Hester said embarrassed. "oh god!"

"yeah, he didn't appreciate it that much." Harry laughed. "it's Draco Malfoy. And he's a right prat. A fully slytherin slytherin if ever there was one"

"right. See you later then"

"bye"

Great! So not only had she acted like a lunatic and probably annoyed snape into taking away all of gryffindor's points, but she had insulted a slytherin too. And they always got their own back. She was going to have to apologise for that. And she really didn't want too. Where had she heard the name Malfoy before? As always, she couldn't remember.

* * *

When Hester was finally let out of the infirmary it was Friday and wherever she went she got weird looks. Evidently Ron was right when he said that whole school thought she was crazy. She stoically ignored them and strided down the hallways with her head held high. Now that she knew she could run she no longer found herself limping so much, although her leg could start aching terribly sometimes.

Hermione, of course, thought that the first priority was to get Hester back on track with school work and they spent long hours in the library. Potions was incredibly unenjoyable as snape glared at her throughout. It seemed that he had been stopped from giving her detentions for the rest of the year and was very angry about this. Dumbledore had not spoken to her yet, but she was sure he would at some point.

And as for Draco malfoy, she did not see him until Sunday. She was in the hall going to the library and she saw him talking to a tall black haired boy who had a permanent smirk on his face. She strutted over with her several heavy books clutched in one hand, the other leaning on her staff.

"excuse me" Hester cleared her throaght. They broke off their conversation and turned to her.

"yes?" Draco said warily, with a look on his face that clearly said "why are you talking to me?".

"from what my friends tell me, I believe I told you that you looked like a ferret."

It was at this point that a boomerang hit her in the back of the head and she crumpled.


	10. A Sudden Culture Shock

Draco's pov

"ok, so what the hell do we do know?" Draco asked staring at the limp figure on the floor.

"could this get any weirder?" Blaise muttered putting a hand over his eyes.

"hello?" Draco waved one hand in front of Blaise's face. "are you going to answer the question or not?"

"well, we could just leave her here."

"do you have anything else more helpful to say?"

"not really,"

"then please shut up."

"alright then, I'll leave you to it" he walked off.

"hey wait! You're not just going to walk away?"

Blaise didn't reply and Draco soon lost sight of him in the packed hallway. Seeing no other option, he shoved her books in his bag and picked her up. Hester was surprisingly light. Sadly this was not the case for her staff. Struggling to carry all of these things he made his way to the infirmary, making up evil plots to get back at Blaise. He was so going to pay for this.

* * *

George's Pov

George was wandering along the corridor contemplating the happy reality of having a free period and imagining with joy those stupid enough to carry on with history of magic. He turned the corner and nearly walked into a slytherin. He was glad that Hester was not present, as he was sure she would love to get her own back for all the times he had taunted her about her lack of grace.

Taking a closer look at the slytherin George realised it was that blonde ferret Draco malfoy….and he was carrying the comatose figure of Hester. What had she got herself into this time? Did he always have to find her injured?

"what are you doing with her?" George growled at him.

"as it happens, I was taking her to the infirmary" Draco replied disdainfully.

"and why would that be"

"someone threw a boomerang at her"

"right, sure, I'll believe that when someone convinces me to throw myself of the astronomy tower. I'll take over from here, thankyou"

"sure. She's fricking heavy anyway" at this Draco practically dropped her to the ground and stalked off.

"hey" George yelled after him a wicked smile on his face.

"what?" malfoy drawled. George punched him square in the face and scooped Hester up, tucking the staff under one arm. "I have wanted to do that for so long". At that he walked off pondering how Hester was going to get any work done if she was constantly getting hurt. Talking of which he must remember to sort out that whole thing with Fred. It would certainly be interesting.

* * *

Draco's pov

It was herbology and Draco Malfoy was sitting next to Blaise nursing a nose-bleed. Naturally, Blaise was laughing at him.

"that it just too much!" he grinned clutching his sides. "how could you possibly manage to be assaulted by a gryffindor within five minutes of me leaving you unattended?"

"it's not funny!" Draco muttered, his voice muffled by the handkerchief he was holding over his nose.

"but that's the thing, it really is" blaise said between bursts of laughter. "god! This hurts so much"

"shut up then!" Draco snapped angrily as he wrestled with the tentacula in front of them.

"do you want help with that?" blaise smirked.

"well, duh, you are _supposed _to be doing it!"

"but laughing at you is so much fun!" blaise said with an innocent look that didn't fit the words.

"oh, ha ha! Listen to my genuine laughter!"

Blaise threw a tentacula seed at him and Draco returned by flicking ink at him.

"you are so immature!" Theodore groaned beside them.

"naturally!" Blaise grinned.

Draco reached for some parchment and found a load of random books in his bags.

"hey, I think I have all her books"

"well that was stupid"

"thanks for pointing it out. Of course if I'd had some help I might not have had to put them in my bag!" Draco hissed.

"alright, I'm sorry" Blaise smirked. "I guess you'll just have to give them to her"

"obviously! I just need to work out how to give them to her without being accosted by psychopathic gryffindors, who will, no doubt, be on the lookout for the first opportunity to punch me again."

"take crabbe and goyle with you" Theodore suggested.

"yeah, cause that _so_ isn't asking for trouble" he replied sarcastically.

"just a suggestion! Do you have to be so scathing about everything I say?"

"Where's the fun in being nice?"

"we'll survey the area and then go when none of her friends slash bodyguards are around. She needs them, seeing the number of times she injures herself. How many times has she been in the infirmary this week? Three? Or is it four?" Blaise said.

"I guess that'll work. Preferably when she's asleep, that way I won't have to talk to her. It was awkward enough the first time. I mean, are there any gryffindors who apologise for insulting us?"

"definitely not"

* * *

That evening Draco snuck into the infirmary, managing to successfully bypass and aggressive gryffindors and further embarrassment. Checking to see nobody was in the corridor behind him, he entered and pulled the heavy doors shut.

"what are you doing here, Mr. Malfoy?" Madame Pomfrey asked, surprising him. he was so shocked he almost screamed, but thankfully his dignity remained intact.

"umm, I was just…dropping off some books of… hers?" he said uncertainly gesturing in the vague direction of Hester's bed.

"oh sure dear" Madame pomfrey replied and returned to her office.

Breathing a sigh of relief Draco hurried over to her bedside table and dumped the books down he was just about to scarper out of the room when she spoke.

"Thank you".

Draco shrieked and spun round almost falling over "I thought you were asleep!"

"it appears not." Hester smiled at him.

"right. Well, I'll be going now, then." Draco said and started to shuffle off in the direction of the door.

"hey wait" she called after him and levered herself up into a sitting position. He inwardly groaned but came back.

"we never finished our conversation" she smiled. Oh great, just what I wanted, he thought.

"I really should be going, I have…..herbology homework?"

"sit!" Hester ordered and Draco found himself obeying without realising. Now perched on the end of a decidedly uncomfortable chair he wondered how the hell he had ended up in this situation.

"you were saying" he prompted deciding he might as well get it over with.

"yes. Well, I believe I told you you looked like a ferret, yes?"

"umm, yes."

"I'd like to apologise for it"

"ok, so you're actually apologising?" Draco laughed.

"what's funny?" Hester asked confused.

"oh come on, have you really got no idea how hogwarts works? A gryffindor insults a slytherin, who wrecks revenge and is avenged in turn by the friends of said gryffindor, who are then attacked by the friends of said slytherin. And it goes on and on until either side suggests a wizard duel or the teachers cotton on. We then quieten down until the next quidditch match"

"seems like it would be a lot easier just to apologise" Hester said.

"it's just the way it works, don't ask me why"

"ok, well I've apologised, do you forgive me?"

"what? I was never really angry in the first place. _Of course_ it's fun to spark off a fight, and part of being a slytherin is to get revenge at any possible opportunity, but your friends pack heavy punches you know. And you were half crazy at the time."

"oh, right" Hester said, suddenly embarrassed. "You can go then, if you want"

"see you around then" Draco smirked and rose from the chair. Who would have guessed it? A gryffindor desperate to apologise. She was a strange one.

* * *

George's pov

"come on!" George said to Hester pulling her up onto her feet. "have to get you out of here before Madame Pomfrey returns. Reckon you don't want to spend more of your time in the infirmary, aye?"

"you're damn right there" Hester said and near sprinted out the room leaving George to fetch all her belongings.

"do you ever use this staff?"

"well, I don't really need to. I've just grown rather attached to it"

"in that case, could you please remember to carry it yourself?"

"oh, sorry, I was exceedingly desperate to get out of there, as soon as possible!"

"yeah, I caught that one" George laughed, passing her the staff and refusing to let her carry all her heavy books.

"I don't think I'm ever going to catch up with all this work" Hester groaned. "I swear snape gave me that four foot essay just because"

"come on, I have something that'll cheer you up"

"did you sort out the Yule ball thing?" she said excitedly.

"see, you're looking forward to it now, aren't you?"

"just answer the question"

"alright, yeah, I sorted out some of it, I'm still thinking on how to convince Fred to ask you"

"it's only three weeks until Christmas, are you sure he hasn't asked anyone else?"

"yep, I know everything he does. Anyway, I'll figure it out" George grinned, thinking that he really had no clue.

* * *

Hester pov

They arrived at the gryffindor common room and George hustled her through.

"up you go, Hermione waiting for you. And you are NOT to take it off without showing me first, got that?"

"yes" Hester sighed and resigned herself to the room full of squealing, overexcited girls full of fashion advice. Thankfully it was just Hermione who had little interest in such affairs. She just pushed the dress into Hester's hands and smiled.

"what's that supposed to mean?" Hester muttered. She put the dress on, which was considerably more difficult than she was really expecting. She surveyed herself in front of the mirror. The dress was a bright, blood red velvety ordeal that flowed down to just below her knees and was figure hugging from the waist up. It was cut off just below her shoulders and had long, tight sleeves. Both the sleeves and the top of the dress were edged with velvet flowers.

It was admittedly very flattering, the only problem being that the top of her back, which had a great many ugly scars, was completely exposed. She wasn't showing the world that.

True to her word she came into the common room to show George (although it took a lot of convincing on Hermione's part). She twirled around and tried to bolt back upstairs.

"hang on a second, must you try and leave immediately?"

"Yes!"

"and why would that be?"

"it's very embarrassing!" Hester pointed out, thinking that that much would be obvious.

"but you look lovely" Hermione said enthusiastically. "just wait until I fetch Harry and Ron"

"no way!" Hester exclaimed. "nobody is seeing this"

"two people already have" George said slyly.

"don't be clever! Nobody _else_ is seeing this!"

"what's wrong with it?" he asked.

"this!" Hester said pointing out all her scars.

"what's wrong with them?"

"you really are clueless! I normally keep them covered up, for the obvious reason that I'm embarrassed to be covered in a tonne of scars!"

"you've got scars on your face, you don't go around with a balaclava on"

"you are _impossible" _Hester groaned, covering her face with both hands.

"you have to wear it!" George said. "you must! You must! You really must!"

"oh, fine, but I will never wear it again! Where did you get it anyway?"

"now that is a secret!" George grinned and tapped the side of his nose.

"remind me to kill you when I have enough energy"

"sure!"


	11. Another Fresh Beginning

AN: Hi everyone,

Just to say Happy Easter and ask for comments.

Thanks

Hester

* * *

Christmas was approaching speedily and George found himself faced with the mammoth task of convincing Fred to take Hester to the Yule ball. When he told her that he had a plan he wasn't completely lying, his plan was to rely on good luck. Extremely good luck. Because despite all his confidence he couldn't think of a single reason why Fred would want even to go to the ball, let alone take Hester. In the past he would have expected him to have had a date by now but he had changed completely since that summer and George realised he no longer knew what he was thinking.

At least he had convinced Hester to wear the dress and managed to procure it in the first place. Now all he had to do was find Fred.

* * *

Fred had finished the book. There had not been a single other mention of Mortus, not even dark hints. That was it, he was going to have to look in the restricted section, which meant getting up in the middle of the night and risking all sorts of dangers such as filch, snape and George catching him. He was so tired. Thank god it was a Sunday, and one week before the end of term to boot. He wondered if he was going home at Christmas. He hoped not, for his mother would surely notice how ill he looked. Infact, he was sure he was ill, he certainly felt it.

Fred eased himself up off his back and sat on the side of the bed, running a hand through his tangled hair as unruly as ever, although now it made his harrowed face look paler. He sighed and slid the heavy book below the bed.

"What am I doing to myself?" he muttered. He stood up and staggered to the window. It was snowing outside and he could see blurry figures engaged in a violent snow fight. That would have been him and George a year ago. George. He must be worried about him. Now he knew there was nothing to find in the book he ought to try and return people's views of him to the norm, before they started making him go to the infirmary.

Turning from the window Fred left the dormitory and hurried into the common room. It was happily deserted. Then he realised that it was lunchtime and he hadn't eaten anything for…. How long was it? At least yesterday, but he wasn't sure. He had spent all of it reading and sleeping. Perhaps it would be wise to eat now. Or maybe he should go and find more books in the library. He better avoid Angelina though, for he had missed several quidditch practices and he was sure she would spend hours lecturing him and threatening death.

He left the common room and started off along the corridor. He did feel hungry, now that he thought about it. He really ought to eat something. He stopped and lent against the wall for a few seconds. he wished he had just stayed in bed.

"are you ok?" a voice asked.

Fred jerked his head up to look at the girl in front of him. it was Hester, a pile of books under one arm, dragging the staff in the other. He felt so bad he forgot to run away. Or to answer.

* * *

"Fred?" Hester said worriedly. He looked like he could barely stand.

"ugh. Sorry…I'm just…tired" he finally managed to reply.

"you look terrible. Shall I fetch George? He's just – "

"no!" the strength of his refusal shocked her slightly. He didn't trust her. He didn't even trust his own brother. He was scared and she wished she knew why.

He had obviously realised her discomfort for he pushed himself off the wall. "I'm fine, really. There's no need to worry anybody"

"right." She changed tactic "were you going to lunch?"

"hmmm. Not sure. Too many people. Questions." He muttered to himself. In a way, she understood, she grew sick of being endlessly questioned by her friends, but he looked like he hadn't eaten for days.

"come on. You should. How long has it been since you last ate?"

"see? Questions." He took a step forward as if too pass her to runaway as he too often did, but he faltered and fell against the wall again.

"see? Ill" Hester replied and took hold of his hand. He snatched it back and she sighed.

"I'm not poisonous you know"

"sorry, i…"

"it's fine, I get it"

"really"

"well I get the basics"

"do you have any food?" he changed the subject.

"the kitchen is closer than the great hall, from what I hear"

"right" Fred again made an effort to get off the wall. Hester proffered a hand. He looked at it uneasily but reluctantly took it. She pulled him off the wall and started off along the corridor. They walked in silence, awkwardly glancing at each other from time to time. They took the back passages, avoiding people and often Fred would direct her down a secret passageway. Eventually they reached a painting of a bowl of fruit.

"How do you get in?" Hester asked. Fred reached forward and tickled a pear. It giggled and the painting swung forward to reveal the kitchen.

"well, that was creepy" Hester remarked of the pear to no one in particular. Fred was already gorging himself on all the available food. The kitchen was full of bustling elves preparing food. One wearing several badly knitted hats, a jumper and odd socks hurried forward.

"would miss like anything?" he asked cheerily.

"are you Dobby?" Hester asked, recognising him from one of harry's descriptions.

"that's me! Are you a friend of master harry's?" he asked excitedly.

"yes"

"any friend of master harry's is a friend of dobby's! can I do anything for you?"

"could I have some water please? Oh and some for him." she added gesturing in the direction of Fred who had worked his way through a plate of roast and a good deal of toast and was now starting on some fruit.

Dobby bowed and hurried off.

"eat slower. You'll make yourself sick" Hester scolded.

"sorry." He said through a mouthful of apple. "hungry"

"I'd gathered" at least he didn't look so pale now. Dobby returned with two large glasses of water which Hester thanked him for and made Fred drink slowly, drinking her own in a few gulps.

"hypocrite" Fred muttered. Almost friendly. Hester thought.

"finished?"

"yeah."

"right, so will you please tell me why you've been shutting yourself up in your room all the time, avoiding everybody. Even your twin."

He looked sheepish but did not reply.

"and why do you hate me so much?"

He looked up "no I don't"

"you certainly don't give that impression. You avoid me as much as you can"

"I avoid everyone, you said so yourself"

"yeah, and all that started when you met me"

"it's not you" he muttered.

"who is it then?"

Fred retreated into himself, shutting up like a clam. He stood up and walked off towards the exit. Hester hurried after him.

"wait," she cried, struggling to keep up with his fast stride, her leg throbbing painfully. He turned to her.

"thank you for your help" he said and disappeared through a hidden door that refused to open for her. She had lost him. Now she would have to rely on George's frankly flawed plan and she would have to wear that dress.

* * *

George sat and surveyed his brother. He was fast asleep, draped over his bed with one arm hanging of the side the other twisted up over his head. George contemplated waking him up but realised that he didn't really want to. Fred had never looked more tired in all his life and that was including the week when they spent every night in detention in the forbidden forest after the exploding, sparkly jelly fiasco. Talking of which, George didn't think that he and Fred had pranked someone since the night of the feast when Hester came.

That must be some sort of record.

George knelt over the sleeping form of his brother and bent his arm back into a comfortable position. Then he pulled the covers up and closed the curtains. He sighed and turned away, it didn't look like he'd be talking to his brother any time soon.

* * *

Fred opened his eyes and stared at the space George had been. He thought about Hester's questions, did he hate her? It made him laugh when he thought how she probably knew more about his life then she did about her own. His laugh sounded hoarse and strange. Maybe if he told someone the fear would lessen, there was always the hope.

Now he had decided he was going to tell someone the question was who tell. George? No, he would somehow, for the first time, just not understand. He had no friends he really trusted and he wasn't about to tell the entirety of hogwarts which would surely happen. Definitely not a teacher. So, who did that leave? Hester.

Fred stared at the ceiling of the four-poster bed and laughed to himself. How ironic it was that the very person he had tried so hard to avoid was the only person he could know confide in, she would surely want to know herself who that man was. Her father. So how was he to approach her? in the past she had always just appeared and now he needed her and had no idea how to find her.

He hoisted himself onto his elbows and yawned, not so much sleep as a moment of darkness as he closed his eyes. Time to retrieve my life, he thought and again laughed. See, you are regaining your old self already.


End file.
